SSGC targets 16,000 defence zone defaulters

Karachi: SSGC’s recovery drive against its defaulters has moved into full swing. From ninth February onwards, the Company’s Recovery Department is entering into a new phase of disconnecting numerous connections across its franchise areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Through advertisements and notices in the print media, the Company has been repeatedly appealing to its domestic and commercial defaulters to either pay up or face disconnections.

The Company’s Recovery Department has mobilized its 38 recovery teams to conduct raids in different neighbourhoods of the entire Defence area from the morning of ninth of February.

Official sources say that SSGC is providing gas facility to about 60,000 domestic customers of Defence Zone, out of which 16,000 customers are defaulters, who owe the Company more than Rs. 56 million. These defaulters owe the Company outstanding dues in the range of Rs. 200 to Rs. 50,000 and above. In the first phase, the Recovery Department is targeting 3,500 Defence Area defaulters, who owe minimum of Rs. 3000 or more. These defaulters owe the Company more than Rs. 42 million and have not paid their gas bills since the last 3 months, sources said.

According to a detailed survey, undertaken recently in the department, the propensity of the affluent residents of the Defence Zone, in paying gas bills regularly, reflects that about 20 % customers do not pay their gas dues on time despite using uninterrupted gas facility.

SSGC’s General Manager (Recovery) told that since 20 December 2011, the Department has disconnected about 800 defaulting customers on daily basis in different localities of Karachi.

He further stressed that SSGC has already made it very convenient for the defaulters to settle their long outstanding dues by paying in easy instalments. He pointed out that SSGC has to settle its dues against purchase of gas from different local and foreign Exploration and Production (E&P) companies within a period of one month. If domestic and commercial customers do not pay up on time, SSGC faces many difficulties in clearing its own dues with these companies, GM (Recovery) elaborated.